LaQuinton's Last Second Triple Sends Buckeyes Past Arizona and Into Elite Eight

LOS ANGELES – Sean Miller has had nightmares of Ron Lewis for six seasons. Add LaQuinton Ross to the list.

Miller has faced his mentor, Thad Matta, twice now and each game has ended in excruciating fashion for the protégé. In 2007, Miller’s Xavier team nearly pulled off the upset of the tournament by beating top-ranked Ohio State. But Lewis made a miracle 3 at the end of regulation, and the Buckeyes controlled overtime.

An extra five minutes weren’t needed on Thursday night at Staples Center.

With the game knotted at 70, Ross caught a pass from Aaron Craft, last week’s hero, and rose and fired from beyond the arc. There was little suspense about whether it would go in or not. It was nothing but net.

“It feels great, man,” Ross said. “I think this is what every player grows up looking at on TV, wanting to hit that big shot for an NCAA tournament team. It just feels great right now.”

Two seconds remained, but Arizona’s desperation heave was picked off by Lenzelle Smith Jr., who did his best Bradley Roby imitation, setting off a wild celebration among the scarlet and gray-clad cheering sections.

Ohio State 73, Arizona 70.

“That was about as high-powered college basketball game as I’ve been a part of,” said Ohio State head coach Thad Matta. “You look at the plays that the Arizona players made, the players that the Buckeyes made. Just a battle.”

In eerily similar fashion to 2007, when Lewis broke Miller’s heart, the Buckeyes came out slowly in the next game. That year, Ohio State fell behind Tennessee by 19 points in the Sweet 16 before one of the greatest rallies in program history.

Those fans that were delirious after Ross’ shot were quiet much of the first half as the Wildcats jumped out to an 11-point lead. Making matters worse for the Buckeyes was the nature of the officiating. The game was called close, with Craft picking up two fouls in the first 11 minutes. He only missed three minutes, though, due to Arizona’s hot shooting.

But Ohio State got new life when Craft returned, ending the first half on a 14-7 run and cutting the lead to four. Arizona scored five points in the final 6:24 of the half. The 19 fouls called during the first 20 minutes caused both teams to adjust.

Defense became a major issue for the Buckeyes. In the rough and tumble Big Ten, few games are called closely. With fouls called on what seemed like every trip down the court – on both teams – the rhythm was inconsistent and Ohio State got timid.

But the Buckeyes’ surge continued after the break. They scored the first 10 points, part of a momentous 33-13 run that ended with Ohio State holding a 10-point advantage.

Arizona didn’t score its first points of the second half until 14:39 remained. Spanning the first half, it went nearly eight minutes without points. The Wildcats started the game 9 of 16 from the field, but had two turnovers and one basket on their first six attempts after the break.

Part of the stagnant offense was due to point guard Mark Lyons being held in check. He scored 10 of the Arizona’s first 22 points – all coming in the first 10 minutes of the game – but went almost 20 minutes without a single point.

“You just have to stay after it,” Craft said. “He’s a great player. You know he’s going to make his shots. He can score in a variety of ways. You just have to keep coming at him, and hopefully he’s going to miss some shots, and he did that.”

When he finally got going in the second half, Ohio State again had problems stopping him. Lyons scored 13 second-half points, most part of a late rally that was capped by a three-point play with 21.8 seconds left.

“I’m proud of our guys’ effort,” Miller said. “We tried hard, and losing in this tournament when you play hard to the end hurts more in the beginning, but I think you leave with a lot of pride knowing you played your heart out.”

After Lyons connected on a free throw to tie the game, Craft dribbled at the top of the key until five seconds remained. That’s when he swung a pass to Ross, who etched his name into Buckeye lore – the second new member in as many weeks.

“Throughout the year, we’ve had a lot of close games and haven’t always come out on top,” Craft said. “Going through those struggles and battles has helped us get these past couple games down to the wire. We do a good job sticking with one another and getting stops, rebounds and big shots when we need them.”

Ohio State had four players finish in double figures scoring, with Deshaun Thomas leading the way with 20 points – 16 coming in the first half. Ross had 17, Craft had 13 and Sam Thompson added 13.

Ross scored 14 points in the second half, continuing his recent trend of second-half success.

“LaQuinton has really grown in a lot of areas,” Matta said. “I think the biggest thing he’s done is he’s engaged himself in all the little things, and that’s made him a better basketball player. We’re proud of him.”

Another trend: winning. Ohio State has now gone 11 games and 39 days without a loss. The Buckeyes have won handily, closely and with too much comfort for some during the streak. But in a win-or-go-home system, victory is all that matters.

The West Region has been full of upset after upset. So far, Ohio State has been immune to the madness unfolding around them. A berth in the Final Four is on the line Saturday, with the Buckeyes taking on the winner of Wichita State and La Salle.

“We’re making our own destiny,” Smith said.

In a jubilant postgame locker room, dreams were coming true. Down the hall, a night full of terror was setting in.

Wow, my heart is still beating 120 bpm.
The question I have is, what happened to the live threads we had during football? I could just sit and watch the comments pop up. I don't like having to refresh every 10 seconds to see if someone had something to say. It basically makes me not even watch the comments. Is there a technical reason that you can't do that during basketball?

I shall root for your team but with disdain and and further, my heartiest "MEH". But if an asteroid hits, I shall not waive in sadness the destined hand of Providence.
(Just promise me I can hit the mute button without fail if you brought the band tonight.)
This is all the love I can muster for thee.
Sincerely, Your humble and obedient servant,
18th Century Idaho Helga

thanks. I always love how in the really old days they could tell their rival how much they hated them, their dog and everything they every voted on but so nicely and always end it with "your faithful (etc) and obedient servant" blah blah.
It kept it civil. We could use that in congress these days. (no, I'm not getting political!)

LOL, I stopped worrying about my bracket about Sunday. Miami royally f**ked mine by losing...they were my national runner-up. Damn you Davidson! Sure I picked Marquette to beat you but it wouldn't have f**ked my bracket so hard if you pulled that upset.

OMG, man my heart is on fire! I had to watch on the app, going nuts! when he hit the 3, it kinda skipped until I SW the ball go through , every one go nuts, and a three posted, man this team doesn't quit!

I feel you. last Super Bowl the Giants were in, as well as last years edition of "the Game" was brutal on me, more relieved it was over and I co old breathe than anything else....tonight was one of those nights, great game in retrospect, but the clock drug on.

If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. ~ Bruce Lee

Good things about the game:
1. Free throw shooting.
2. Kept poise after the fast Arizona start.
3. Ross now consistently stepping up--that we can now count on Q and Scott to give us valuable minutes every game is the biggest difference between the Bucks of the first 2/3 of the season and the current Bucks.
4. Arizona has the sort of athletes we're going to be seeing in the Final Four, and I think it was important to re-accustom ourselves to that, given that the more talented teams in the bracket have been disappearing.
5. Charles Barkley. MWAHAHAHAHAHA

Bad things about the game:
1. Defense is still hit-or-miss compared to what we were seeing in conference play.
2. This is two straight games where a last-second shot was needed precisely because we allowed a decent-sized lead to disappear late.

Notice most of Marquette's runs came with Craft on the bench. He has such an impact on the defensive end and more of an impact on offense than people give him credit for.
Although if he makes 50% of his layups tonight we win by 6 or 8

You guys. Somewhere along the line, I think you'll have to play somebody better than at least a #6 seed. Not sure when, but I think there must be a rule that you can't win it all by just playing #10-seed mid-majors.Edit - oops; I see Marquette is 3-seed. lulz.

Cool story; Brian Cook totally called that game. It's remarkable. He scripted it a day before. He said don't worry. It was how we matched up. We were VCU's nightmare opponent. But the way that VCU had demolished Akron (very badly diminished, it turned out) by 40, and running full court pressure even in a blowout, had a lot of folks worried.
As good as the VCU matchup was, Kansas is a bad matchup for us. I think we are going to need heroics from McGary, or Jordan Morgan, or Jon Horford, or most likely all three.
My bracket (its always the damn bracket) has Kansas over Michigan.

i gotta tell ya, i was calm cool collected, at this point in the game boys, from Sylvester and Lewis, to now Craft and Ross, The "Mississippi Mamba" you just gotta know the college basketball gods always love to see some clutch plays!
This team is Elite!

Q either pulls up for a 3 or drives right EVERY TIME and nobody can stop it. It's incredible. Love the kid. The drive from almost half court, shot clock winding down, absorbs contact, finishes. LIKE A BOSS! Huge play.

We talkin' bout practice?! Not the game I love...the game I die for. Practice?!

Agreed. He's been taking a lot of heat lately, and it probably has been deserved. I like to see Buckeyes redeem themselves though. I'm willing to cut Amir more slack than many others are.
He'll come around. And guess what? He'll prolly stay for 4 years! When's the last time a big guy did THAT at OHIO STATE?

I'm not sure if my heart can handle any more games like the last two. The clutch shots are awesome and add drama and all, but it would nice to hold onto a lead down the stretch. But a win is a win and I love this team!
Go Bucks!

it's clear, the tourney is not about defense, which no team is allowed to play ... we have to keep scoring to win. this isn't the big ten, they won't allow either team to play defense. Arizona simply missed in the second half, it had nothing to do with out defense. we didn't play better defense, because you are not allowed to. we have to keep scoring to advance. the tourney is about offense plain and simple. we scored in the second half, that"s the difference.

I think the tourney is always about good (efficient) offense. It's why good regular season teams like Wisconsin get knocked out early.
I was wondering before the game tonight, and even more now...is OSU the highest-scoring team in the tourney so far?

After watching the game, and the first half of Indiana and Syracuse, the fix is in against Delany and his Big Ten. Don't think for a second that isn't common in high school and college basketball. It isn't the zone, it is the hard fouls on every possession. And then those horseshit announcers "clean block". That pisses me off to no end. This is part of why I don't watch basketball much any more. And then there is the traveling.

You might be right Nick; the refs in the Bucks game sucked from beginning to end with ticky tack fouls and what the hell did they have to review after Q hit the winner; he was three feet behind the arc???

NCAA Tournament is always called closer than the B1G league. I've noticed that. I think it makes for higher-scoring games than what you'd normally see: more free-throws and less pressure on defense for fear of fouling. Probably creates more interest in the games for the casual fan. Refs may have even gotten notice to call things even closer after all those 60-55 games the first weekend.
So it's not necessarliy refs being against the B1G....BUT...I think this DOES affect B1G teams more though, since it's more of an adjustment for them than, say, an ACC or PAC team.
And that last video review was to get the correct time on the clock. Sucks for the Buckeyes, but I'm not going to complain about refs using video replay whenever they're allowed. Should be more of it.

Who would you guys rather face next? I'm gonna say La Salle only because I like our matchup against them especially with Craft and Scott on the floor at the same time. I think our small lineup would match up quite well with La Salle

Buckeyes hung tough even after they blew the lead; thanks to the B1G regular season preparation. However, I have a hard time with all of you Negative Nancy's who probably never played anything; slamming Craft for missing a few lay ups and FT's; after all he's done for this program. Craft and Smith, and Q taking the ball to the bucket turned the tide in this game along with the D.

while agree with you that people negative of craft and matta (which is common here) are idiots, it;s not like you played sports at a higher level than any of us. I wouldn't pull the "never probably played anything" card on the internet ... you are faceless, nameless and without credibility to questions anyone else's athletic achievements

I think that there is a correlation between the increased fouls and our scoring increasing. I think that it is causing both of the defenses to back off and not defend as well. This leads to easier and more efficient shooting. I like how our buckeyes can play multiple styles and adjust accordingly.

My dream goes like this here on out.... tOSU beating Florida in the NC Game here in Atlanta 6 years later AND THEN UFM leading tOSU Buckeyes to beat an SEC team out in OUR ROSE BOWL Next January! It started 6 years ago and I was there in Glendale watching Troy take it on the chin and then 3 months later Oden, Connley and the boys lost to Florida here in Atlanta for the NC.
That's what I call B1G justice!!!!! F*ck the SEC!!!!!

Simply unbelievable. The Buckeyes have developed incredibly well over the season, but the heart, determination and ultimate execution come from each individual player's own fighting spirit. I do not think a coach can teach these qualities.